Tangled
by KrisEleven
Summary: Written for the October challenge at the TPE: Writing Experiments forum. His feet snapped dry branches and crunched leaves while long grasses tangled on his bare ankles. For a moment, Briar had the fleeting feeling that he didn't know where he was going.


The air was too warm and he wiped sweat off his face as he walked through the brambled growth covering the field. His feet snapped dry branches and crunched leaves while long grasses tangled on his bare ankles.

For a moment, Briar had the fleeting feeling that he didn't know where he was going, or even where he had come from.

He was distracted when the grass became thicker, hiding his view of what lay under his feet. It took his full concentration to not trip on the debris he could no longer see while his sense of urgency grew. There was something _happening_ and he needed to find someone... or get away from something? He wasn't sure, anymore, and it just made him more anxious.

"What you _need_ is to see the mind-healer like you promised," Sandry said.

"Oh, give over, Duchess," Briar replied, pulling his foot clear of a deep patch of mud that had caught it.

"Why do you think you're anxious all the time? Even if you aren't getting the panics like you used to, it's still _not okay_."

"It's just like you to poke your neb twenty unwanted places at once. Get it out of my business, Sandry. I'm dealing."

"But you've decided not to have a lady every night," Daja responded.

"So what?" Briar asked, looking back. Daja followed behind, just her and Briar in this sea of green, but she was having none of his difficulties. No matter how he tried, he could not move any faster, could not reach his destination, could hardly move forward. The branches beneath his feet were thicker, now, and had grown in number. He could hardly take a single step without tripping.

"Why else is this happening?" she asked.

"What is happening?" Briar asked, irritated. His foot was stuck in what felt like a fork in a thick branch and he was struggling to free it. "_What_, Daj'?" he asked. He looked back, but she was gone.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead again, looking around at the emptiness stretching to the horizons. "Daja?"

Behind him, he heard a scream. Heart pounding, he spun around, searching frantically for the source, but he could see nothing around him. There was no one there.

"Daj'! Daja, where are you?"

The scream repeated and Briar tried to run toward it but fell, sprawling to the ground. He recognized that scream.

"Evvy? Evvy!" Briar pushed himself up only to fall again.

The screams didn't repeat and the silence that stretched on was infinitely worse. He had lost her again, how could he have lost her again? She was supposed to stay in his sight, no matter _what_ happened, he had _told _her, but he wasn't even watching her as the soldiers came up against the temple's walls and now...

Tangled in the grass, Briar reached back desperately to break off the stick that had poked through his pant leg, pinning him to the ground. Breaking it with difficulty, he had it clasped in his hand when he tried to push himself up off the ground again, to find Evvy, whatever it took. Looking down as he stood, he flung what he held away into the grass in disgust.

It wasn't a stick. It was a bone.

The grass was gone. Briar could see that what he had been trying to wade through was not debris and branches like he'd thought, but piles of bodies, broken people, some so old they were merely skeletons in the grass.

He couldn't move, couldn't possibly walk through all that death.

He couldn't stay; Evvy was out there and she was screaming. There was something he had to do, or something he was running from, but the bodies were all around him.

He reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead again, but when he brought his fingers down, they were covered in blood and he knew, somehow, that it wasn't his. He was responsible for it and it wasn't his.

Something grabbed his ankle, pulling him down. Gasping, he tried to get away, but he lost his balance. He fell and at once the bodies around him were tugging, pulling, grasping at him. He couldn't fight them off, they were too many and he was suddenly so weak, too weak to even move as one of the skeletal hands crawled its way up the side of his face. He took a breath to scream.

Briar woke up, gasping. Sitting up in bed, he tried to see through the darkness, to see his familiar room and not be afraid. Alone in the dark, he drew up his legs, resting his forehead on his knees. He was crying and he tried to even his breathing enough that he could draw the deep breath of air he needed to slow the tears, but in the darkness the dream repeated itself and he couldn't relax.

_Coppercurls._

_Briar? _Tris's voice was groggy, and he could feel her sit up and grab her glasses from the table beside her bed. _Are you okay?_

For the first time, Briar answered truthfully. _No_.

Focusing on breathing, Briar didn't notice that she didn't respond and didn't hear her until the door clicked open and Tris walked in, her thick nightgown covered by a robe, even in the summer heat.

"Move over," she ordered when he just sat and stared at her, still gasping for air.

Obeying, Briar made room for her to sit beside him, which she did, with one hand on his back as they shared the darkness. After a short while, Briar's body seemed willing to forgive his mind for the fright, though he couldn't shake the horror the dream had awakened. Again.

After he calmed down, Tris took her hand from his back but didn't leave. Instead, she slipped her legs under the covers and turned her back to him. "I'll stay here tonight. No point in you getting _no _rest. You'll be a monster in the morning, as it is."

"Tris –"

"Shh." Her voice was gentle. "Go to sleep."

Briar lay down gingerly, stretching his feet out underneath the covers. Lying on his back, he stared at the ceiling and thought about how much he hated having Gyongxe tangled up inside his head.

_I think I'm ready for that mind-healer now_, he said.

Without a word, Tris reached behind her and grabbed his hand.

* * *

A/N This month's challenge was Halloween-themed. We had to write a story that included one or more of a couple different themes: monster, skeleton, scream, etc. This takes place after Will of the Empress and is (if you're interested) some time after my other fics on Briar (_Even if it Killed Him_ and _A Set of Memories_) I hope you enjoyed it.

Also, this story has been nominated into the Summer 2011 Ficship Competitions! If you enjoyed it, please go to the Ficship forum and vote for me; I would really appreciate the support!

Vote here: forum (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/topic/54838/44835113/1/


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